Top 5 Patterns from Beaver Lake Day 3

Jeff Sprague

April 16, 2016
by Rob Newell

For the third day in a row, the lead has changed at the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Jack Link’s on Beaver Lake. Now Scott Canterbury is taking his turn in the pole position and hopes to wheel into victory lane tomorrow.

Lurking behind him are a few Beaver Lake veterans that will be waiting to capitalize on a stumble. Interestingly, several pros in the top five have suggested that the bass in the stained water, which were largely prespawn when the tournament began, are now actually starting to spawn and this is impacting their chucking and winding patterns that allowed them to cover so much water the first two days.

After leading on day two, Darrel Robertson slipped back one spot to second today.

Robertson tried to work his wacky worm and sight-fishing plan down in the clear water for most of the day with little success. With about an hour left, he abandoned that pattern and ran back towards takeoff. In the closing minutes of the day, he caught a 4-1/2 and 2-1/2 to salvage his day.

“I was preparing my exit speech,” Robertson says. “I pulled up into a little pocket right there at the end, pitched a jig up there, caught the big one and a few pitches later caught the second biggest one. Let me tell, you those two fish really saved my bacon.”

Those two fish not only kept Robertson in the hunt going into tomorrow, but they made him rethink his strategy going into the final day.

“I’m done with that down there,” Robertson says of the clear water. “I think I’ll stick to that dirty water tomorrow.”

3. Keystone Light pro Jeff Sprague – Point, Texas – 44-0 (15)

Jeff Sprague is enjoying the best FLW Tour event of his pro career this week, now sitting in third with a chance to lock down his first Tour win.

Much of Sprague’s success this week has come from cranking down rock banks in pockets with stained water. He has been targeting staging bass with a squarebill crankbait but now feels the bass have actually started to set down on beds.

“I saw some things today that let me know it’s changing out there,” Sprague says. “I saw some fish on beds, so I think what started as a prespawn tournament has really shifted into a spawn tournament. I found a couple of places where males were on beds. On one hand that’s a good thing because I know some females are around. But on the other hand, I think it’s going to require a change tomorrow. The water is too stained to actually sight-fish, especially if we get any more wind and clouds. I still might crank some tomorrow, but I’ve got something else I’m going to try that I hope will work on the females that are hanging around those areas.”

4. Livingston Lures pro Andy Morgan – Dayton, Tenn. – 43-15 (15)

After two days of lurking around under the radar, Andy Morgan has suddenly showed up in the top 10. Actually, this is not a surprise to anyone who follows the FLW Tour. The former Beaver Lake Tour winner has done what he does best in Arkansas: better his weights each day. Consider that he has checked in weights of 12-13, 14-4 and 16-13 on a lake that has been fished relentlessly for a whole week.

“My goal on this lake is to whittle down the inevitable lulls that happen here each day,” Morgan says. “On the first day my lulls are always really long and as the tournament progresses I pay attention to the timing of those lulls and try to make adjustments that will narrow those lulls down.”

During the week, Morgan has used one of his signature approaches at Beaver Lake: move to new water each day. He has been covering water with a crankbait, spinnerbait and a jig, but he too believes the fish have finally moved onto beds.

“I actually saw some today on beds and I haven’t seen that all week,” he adds. “I knew with that warm night last night they were probably going to start locking on. The biggest problem with that for me is I’m going to have to make myself slow down. Covering water is a big key for me, but when they start spawning, I have to slow down and that kind of slows my progress on covering water.”

5. Scott Martin – Clewiston, Fla. – 43-5 (15)

Scott Martin spent the first day and a half sight-fishing down in the clear water to garner a ticket to the top 20. Today, with much windier and cloudier conditions, Martin decided to switch gears and go cranking in the stained water.

“I started close to takeoff to catch a good 10- to 11-pound base limit,” Martin says. “Getting something in the ‘well helps me calm down so I don’t start fishing too fast. I’m cranking with two different crankbaits. One dives down to that 8- to 12-foot range and the other is a shallower runner for more of that 3- to 6-foot range. I alternate between the two of them depending on how the bank in front of me lays out. I’ll hit the steeper stuff with the deeper bait and if I come across a little flatter bank I’ll switch back to the shallower model.”

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